Greenspan vs. Buffett

Buffett vs Greenspan

There is a larger difference between the two titans: Greenspan is an unrepentant disciple of the discredited greed theories of Ayn Rand, while Buffett is a simply a pragmatist. Greenspan gained a reputation like the flea on the tail of Seabiscuit by taking credit for a financial expansion engineered by Presidential and Congressional restraint. When he recently found a President and Congress more in tune with his philosophy, he and they dissed the economy, leaving the pieces to a new Fed Chairman and a new President and Congress with philosophical and moral values different from his. While Mr. Buffett has certainly benefited during the same period, his pragmatism sheltered him from Greenspan's hubris and has certainly protected his investments from the serious debacle suffered by Greenspan's Federal Reserve, the quasi Gov't Entities (FNMA and FHLMC) he spurred into subprime risk, and the investment banks he encouraged, and the economy he failed protect.

Dan The Man of CA @ Aug 18, 2009 20:23:14 PM

Sure Industry Can Regulate but Not CEO

It is in best interest of ceo to run short term high profit and shift future problems to the next guy. Higher profits ->> higher bonuses. What in best interests of the business may not be in best interests of the CEOs and top executives. There practices were not much different from Enron, though they did not do anything illegal. Partially they did not care whether loans were sound or not because they sold them and charge management fees.

Victor of CA @ Apr 03, 2009 23:12:34 PM

Read the fine print?

Read all the fine print ...you must be joking. If we ever tried to read all the fine print now, we would not have time to do anything else. Aside from the point that all of this fine print is designed by company lawyers to obsure even the most basic of principles. All your need to think about is bank loans, credit card applications or home insurance contracts. Any credit card applicaton today basically allows the bank to do whatever they want including raising your interest rate to say 25% despite the fact you have always paid everything on time or simply cancel your credit altogher based on some legitimate payment dispute that you may have had with some other card issuer. Or how about so-called replacement cost home insurance that policy holders paid for years? Ask the unfortunate home owners in California how well that worked out when their home burned down and the insurance company refused to honor the "replacement" of their home.

Cam of CA @ Mar 14, 2009 13:51:18 PM

Answer to What's the point?

So "everybody now admits Congress made a big mistake in deregulation". If that were so, then why do we still have all these Republican idiots, lobbyists, PAC's, so called private market free-market capitalists continuing to attempt to influence every single government debate to be resolved in favor of something that benefits themselves and for the most part disadvantges the average American. The massive wealth transfer from the 99% of average Americans to the elite 1% of Americans over the past 2-3 decades is just proof positive of the massive deception these so called free-marketers have engineered with their deregulation (meaning let them pay to change all the rules in their favor) lobbying. With regard to Warren Buffett, if the rest of the so-called private sector operated in the manner that he has, we would be significantly better off than we are today. A large part of Mr. Buffett's success is derived from buying and OPERATING real business's like furniture stores, jewllery stores, pipelines, energy companies, insulation companies, etc. He actually puts money in, employees people, and produces real goods and services. Of course he makes a profit on these, no businessman can invest and stay in businees if they don't. True that he also invests in public companies and loans money to public companies, but he does so as a LT investor for the dividend and growth returns as opposed to speculation. He is no speculator like Long Term Capital Management mentioned in the article or the banks with their mortgage securitization where they had almost no interest in holding the mortgages and flipped them as fast as they could turn a profit on them. Mr. Buffett in fact owns a mobile home manufacturer that has fairly minor loan losses on the buyer loans they originated and hold (unlike the banks and financial engineers who were in large part enabled by Mr. Greenspan). Thus you are correct in that Mr. Buffett is a real businessman who has made significant positive contributions to the US economy whereas Mr. Greenspan is has been a significant factor in the decline and manipulation of the US economy over the past decades.

Corey of CA @ Mar 14, 2009 13:34:09 PM

Greenspan

Greenspan is to blame as is the Republican party and all those who pushed for more deregulation of the Stock Market.

HE HIMSELF ADMITTED BEING WRON IN THINKING THAT THE INDUSTRY WOULD HAVE THE SENSE TO REGULATE ITSELF. Given the greed exhibited throught the corporate and particularly financial sector of the economy, its hardly a surprised that the ship of state had run aground

peterklymasz of NJ @ Mar 12, 2009 08:30:19 AM

private banks' power to create debt money

"... the whole national debt is made up of interest charges" - thomas edison

source : michael : http://www.michaeljournal.org/plenty50.htm

Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford said:

“If the people of the nation understood our banking and monetary system, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

same source : http://www.michaeljournal.org/plenty49.htm

duggy_dugg of NJ @ Mar 01, 2009 11:49:36 AM

Look in the Mirror

To Maruis of Tenn. Blaming all this on Bush and his administration shows no brains. These problems are due to Greed which led to mismanagement and over reaching. We as a country need to start looking in the mirror, at our constant consuming of more than we can presently pay for, and are election of leaders who do the same. The future for us is bleak unless we change.

Daryl Smith of MI @ Feb 25, 2009 13:52:47 PM

deregulation

was anyone paying attention when our government allowed deregulation in the airline industry. Does anyone remember Peoples Express, Freddie Laker or any number of companies that no longer fly because of greed? That worked out well too. no one learns from history anymore. If people would stop trying to make a buck and read the fine print, maybe this country would return to a real force in all industries again.

now all i see are passing the buck and hoping for luck.

p of NJ @ Feb 19, 2009 19:25:43 PM